databases

So how did I miss this? In between version 6 and 7, PostgreSQL turned into a real database. After a little playing around with it I've found that it's clearly a lot slower than MySQL and doesn't have as many useful built in data types, but since it's got extensible types that might be an acceptable tradeoff given the triggers and transactions (although transactions seem useful less often than I thought for web apps). If I were doing a hundred thousand comments a day, MySQL would be the clear choice, but I think I'm gonna switch to PostgreSQL and see how that treats me.

And just how do you think you'll get that past the MySQL Nazi?
Yes, Postgres has grown up quite a bit and looks like it might make a couple more big leaps with paid development coming from GreatBridge. The speed differences between Postgres and MySQL are very apparent for low-volume web sites but as your volume increases, MySQL starts to fall off where Postgres handles the scaling.
Another possibility, if you're shopping for SQL servers, Sybase has made ASE 11.0.3.3 completely free (no source though). You can develop and deploy with it at no cost. I'd be money, however, that Postgres will surpass Sybase in the next few years for speed and functionality (provided Postgres doesn't waste time trying to build a JVM into the engine).

Yeah, performance differences at low volumes are extremely apparent, it also looks like PostgreSQL likes a lot more memory (which might be MySQL falls behind when the load gets higher.
I'm also told that Borland is open sourcing Interbase, but I want to get to developing apps, not spending my entire life evaluationg database servers, so at some point I've got to make that leap of faith...